appeared to be under some strain. I tried
to help her problem solve by narrating to
her how I ended up here and why I came
back. I suggested to her to keep the forms
for the pleasant gentleman instead.
I even went down to describing him by
height, how his teeth looked and told
her about the small scar above his left
eye. Well, she rolled her eyes and said I
needed to sign a certain book.
She stormed into the back office where
a few people were still working, looking
like they had just started their day,
laughing and making jokes. She walked
to the end of the corridor and grabbed
one of the big black books.
She opened it and put in the usual marks
that I now know mean ‘sign here.’ She
passed it over to me with a pen. I obliged,
signed, filled in the details required and
passed it back to her. Silence prevailed
between us.
She slammed the book shut, put the
forms in an envelope, gave me a note and
told me to go to the cashier and make a
payment.
At the end of it all, I no longer felt
sympathetic towards her. I understood
she was in a rush to go wherever she
needed to go, but the sign said the bank
closes at 7.30pm and therefore my
understanding was that I should still be
able to get services until 7.30pm. I also
figured the staff should be prepared to
serve customers until that time.
Although my interaction with the lady
took only a few minutes, each step
dragged. She was so angry at me and
I was glad I was finally at the payment
counter. I looked at the big clock behind
the cashier and saw it clock 7.30pm.
The cashier handed me my receipt and I
turned to leave the bank.
I suddenly remembered I needed to call
the next day to follow up on the forms. I
walked back to the cashier and requested
for the earlier relationship manager’s
number. He quickly gave me a card with
the bank numbers and I left.
For all the drama, she must have had
something so important to do. I had
no intention of messing anybody’s
evening and I even wondered why I had
taken the journey. I must have really
inconvenienced her evening.
We met at the lift, I stood to the left, and
she stood to the right. We got in and I
finally asked her where she was rushing
to. Her response, “I had already shut
down my computer and had to restart
it all over again just to serve you. My
colleagues were also waiting for me and
they have now left.”
I looked at her and smiled. She didn’t
even touch the computer while serving
me. I apologized to her again, and wished
her a good evening just as the lift opened
on the ground floor.
“Wow!” I thought to myself. All that fuss
because she had to restart the computer and
would miss out on catching up with her
colleagues. I knew I would never go back to
that bank.That was one month ago.
A few days ago, I needed the same service
my friend had requested me to make
on her behalf. I would never go back
there. The first relationship manager was
extremely helpful and pleasant. The one I
interacted with at the point of conversion
was not so pleasant.
I already had a fixated assumption that
the bank had varying standards and that
you were never sure what you would get
with them. I also had the knowledge
about the product and what a good
option looked like.
I walked into my regular bank and
negotiated the service. They obliged
and even commended me for my good
understanding of financial products.
Customers who complain might seem
like a nuisance on the face of it. In reality,
they are the customers who want to
help you build your brand and improve
your services. They are the easy ones to
deal with. They hold your brand in high
regard and only want you to step up to
meet their expectations.
Acknowledge their concern, show
empathy, and help resolve their problem.
Make that after sale call and ask them
how they are doing with your products.
Quiz them if you want to carry out
market research because they truly care
about you and want to feel that they
are making that connection with the
‘humans’ behind the brand. If you do this
well, you have loyal customers for life.
It’s those customers who do not
complain that should worry any sales and
marketing person. Advertising always
helps with acquisition after big heavy
budgets, but it takes a lot more cash to
make up for the loss of a customer you
had in the palm of your hands.
The person who feels like they have the
lesser job of retention is the person who
will cost your business the biggest chunk
off the bottom line. Aligning service
delivery across the business still remains
the best way to deliver above competition.
It is never about the product or the
service. As a matter of fact, my regular
bank never offered a good mix of what I
was looking for.
When they saw the opportunity to sell
me more, they quickly grabbed it. In
truth, I think it is a decision the branch
manager made without knowing how he
would carry it through.
He however did it with a smile,
exuberating patience, never showing the
frustration of not having the package I
was looking for and constantly asking
me questions as he took notes to make
sure the same transfer of knowledge I
had received from the good man at the
competing bank was also deposited with
him.
Diana Obath is a Public Relations and
Communications Specialist. You can
commune with her via mail on: ObathD@
gmail.com.